On today's episode, we welcome guest Lola J. Dominguez, founder and chief creative officer of luxury fashion brand Domivis, to explore the intertwining paths of career, passions, and the pursuit of dreams amidst challenges. Lola shares her journey from marketing to fashion, emphasizing the significance of transferable skills, the importance of aligning career choices with personal values, and the balance between engaging in a day job while pursuing true passions

In this episode we discuss:

-the ups and downs of launching your own self-funded business

-how gratitude shifts your mindset and helps your transition from an employee to a boss

-why having a 9-5 can be a huge opportunity if you want to start your own business

-how to identify what you love about your work

-Lola's nightly routine to remind herself she's done a good job

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction and Welcoming Guest

00:49 Diving Into Lola's Journey: From Marketing to Fashion

02:11 The Art of Juggling Multiple Interests and Pursuits

04:50 Mastering Work-Life Balance: Strategies and Insights

10:05 The Power of Delegation and Outsourcing in Business

16:37 Finding Fulfillment: Aligning Career with Personal Values

19:39 The Essence of Living a Life in Authentic Alignment

21:58 The Power of Transferable Skills

24:49 Embracing the Startup World: A Tale of Adaptation

27:28 The Essence of Success: A Personal Journey

31:25 Navigating Career and Passion: Lola's Insights

38:10 Rapid Fire Questions: Unveiling Personal Preferences

Links:

Lola Dominguez is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of fashion brand, Domivis. After 6 years of managing marketing teams in various industries, she created Domivis as a passion project born from her own journey of embracing visibility. Lola's artistic expression focuses on themes of visibility, sensuality, creativity, edge and duality, stemming from her personal connections to yin and yang and being a Gemini woman. Since the launch of Domivis during NYFW in September 2023, Lola has continued to expand her footprint in the fashion industry through mentorship for aspiring fashion marketers and models.

@lolajdominguez on Instagram

Lola's Facebook page

Lola's Website

• The Art of Uncertainty by Dennis Merritt Jones

This podcast is hosted by Captivate, try it yourself for free.

Disclaimer:

This podcast includes affiliate links that, when clicked and purchased, may generate revenue for me and the podcast. I only recommend things I truly love and stand behind.

Download Free Wellness Assessment:

https://from-a-full-cup.ck.page/93236e5b48

Book Free wellness Breakthrough Session:

https://tidycal.com/nataliemullin/free-discovery-call

Get in touch:

info@fromafullcup.com

Speaker Bookings:

https://nataliemullin.com/

From a Full Cup is a mental wellness education podcast that teaches women to prioritize their wellness and put themselves first, because you can’t pour from an empty cup. 

I'm your host Natalie Mullin , Certified Wellness Educator, Speaker, Facilitator and Teacher. Every Thursday I release a new episode, teaching women how to dream big, take action and move the needle forward in life.

Past episodes

From a Full Cup website

Subscribe to the podcast

Listen to From a Full Cup

Copyright 2024 Natalie Mullin

[00:00:48] Natalie: Hi everyone and welcome to From a Full Cup. Today I have with me Lola. I am so excited to get into this conversation. Lola, welcome to the show.

[00:01:07] Natalie: Thank you. Thank you so much. And Lola, I just like to start with this filled my cup segment.

[00:01:17] Lola: What really fills my cup is the off the cuff rambles. I love that inner dialogue, inner monologue style podcast. My favorite was how your career does not equal your purpose. As someone who's currently navigating a career change, I really resonated with the idea that your identity is not determined by a particular role.

[00:01:39] Lola: In general, I find that purpose goes beyond a particular task or job or role. And it's in those bigger picture things like helping people, serving people, influencing people. And those are things that can be done in a variety of careers in a variety of different ways. So I absolutely loved how you touched on being separate from your career and your identity and your purpose being within yourself.

[00:02:21] Natalie: So I want you to share a little bit about some of the different interests that you are pursuing and how have you been able to figure out a skill set that would support you in doing these things?

[00:02:48] Lola: I started in marketing when I was in college. I was doing an internship where I was working for a startup technology company. And if you know anything about working for a startup, it's all hands on deck. You are doing a little bit of everything. You're like wearing a lot, a lot of hats. Um, but I loved it.

[00:03:29] Lola: a bunch of totally new roles as an entrepreneur or as a startup myself, um, and my full time work, um, within marketing. And for me, I think it's just been a matter of really focusing on these transferable skills, looking at the things that I can take with me in all the projects that I'm working on, all the things that I'm doing, and really making it a point to work smarter, not harder, whenever I can.

[00:04:05] Natalie: Absolutely. That's such a, that's such an important point because a lot of times people are chasing things and they're doing things that they don't even want to do.

[00:04:29] Natalie: Because you don't like what you're doing. Now you can even get drained in a job that you're passionate about too, that you really love. So I do want to make that difference. But what you said is so important because if you have the joy, if you have the interest, at least it can give you more momentum, especially when you're running on low, to still want to keep going, because it's genuinely in alignment for you.

[00:05:11] Lola: Like, you know, why am I choosing to work three jobs? It's because I want to get as much skills and experience as I can before I become a full time entrepreneur. It's because. I want the extra income to help fuel my business, which is my ultimate passion that I feel is connected to my purpose. Why am I working these long hours after my full time job for, you know, my job?

[00:05:56] Natalie: No, I love that. And something you mentioned at the end about when your plate is full. What is it like for you to recognize that your plate is full and what do you do in that moment once you've become aware of it?

[00:06:18] Lola: So I love to like physically have a to do list, whether it's like in a sauna or project management platform, or just like on a sheet of paper on a whiteboard. I like to just sit down and just have something visual to look at that helps me kind of dissect. Wow. Look how many hours I have available today.

[00:07:01] Lola: The math is a math thing Right, you know, I I told myself that Yeah, this is not feasible for today. Pick which three or four tasks you feel like you can achieve in this time frame. And let's start there. Let's start with those. And that really helps me a lot because that is a literal, physical, tangible, visual way for me to see your plate is full.

[00:07:47] Lola: I start feeling very irritable or I start feeling frazzled, brain fog. I start feeling like maybe even a little like stressed or tense and just having the body awareness and the mental awareness of, Ooh. Like something is wrong. Like something is off. I'm feeling stretched in. I'm feeling stressed. It's like I get a notification or an email and I'm just immediately, I'm irritable.

[00:08:30] Natalie: Yeah, no, I love I love both of the things that you said and I'll start with the second one because I think the mind body connection is so important and it's so powerful if we can really tap into it And sometimes we're not picking up that our body's actually giving us clues. It's giving us signals of Slow down This doesn't feel good I'm, I'm uncomfortable, right?

[00:09:13] Natalie: I need to pause and I might have to remove something from my schedule. And that really relates to what you were talking about in the first point. And I like that idea. It's funny, I just started using Asana maybe like two weeks ago, and I, I'm loving it so far. I love Asana, . But when you put all your tasks down that you have to do, that's such a good quick way.

[00:09:54] Natalie: And so you're going to have to just either move something to the next day, or it's just got to go, or you've got to outsource it, right? So then you, you have to figure out what do I do because I can't do it all.

[00:10:13] Lola: I didn't realize just how therapeutic it is to be able to like turn to a team member and say, can you help me with this? And I think that, you know, sometimes that's really hard to do, especially when You know, you're a creative or you're super passionate about what you're doing when you're an entrepreneur or even as a manager, right?

[00:11:01] Lola: But it's just amazing when you can have a support system of some kind, whether it's a friend, a freelancer, anyone that can just take some things off of your plate. I just, I learned that the hard way I think by trying to do everything myself and realizing like you are absolutely not capable of being the everything.

[00:11:47] Lola: So I'm just glad that you said outsource

[00:11:55] Lola: Yeah, so I would say a lot of the technical stuff actually um, so when i'm even thinking about designing a new collection or designing just clothes and things in general.

[00:12:27] Lola: I'm like, Oh my God, is this a good quality? Is that a good looking at little things like that? And I have to take a minute and step back and say, Wait a minute. I can go ask someone that's an expert and like sometimes even if it's not a physical person, I go ask the internet. There's YouTube videos.

[00:13:08] Lola: And if I had to sit down and sew all these clothes myself by hand and still try to do the marketing and the legal and the financial and run my internship program and show up for appearances, I would lose my mind.

[00:13:28] Natalie: Like even small things like maybe not picking up the groceries and getting instacart to help you out sometimes, right? Or um, just getting a babysitter if you have kids to help you out. Like just different things that we can do and it might not be all the time, but sometimes you just need help outside of yourself and it doesn't have to be paid help.

[00:14:05] Natalie: What our capacity is because sometimes we are just wasting time like we'll spend so much time doing something because it's not our zone Of genius like it's not what we really know But if we just leaned into somebody else who did know it would do it in two seconds So it's just faster and easier to just outsource some of these things to other people so we can focus on the part that we're Actually good at

[00:14:28] Lola: I couldn't agree more. I also think I had to check my own ego and sometimes we want to be really good at something and we're just not And we try so hard because it's like we almost want to prove to ourselves That you can do it and you just want to do it so bad. And like you said we end up wasting So much time and so it was just like an ego check moment of realizing Like this is where your strengths are.

[00:15:25] Lola: They're going to look at the final products and they're going to respect the artistry, the creativity, the meaning behind it, like all of these things. No one is going to care whether you were up all night or you had someone helping you sew this. So again, an ego check moment for me was saying, put your energy, your efforts, where they're better served, into it.

[00:15:55] Natalie: What I love there is that you know what you're good at because you the only way for this to work, you've gotta be able to figure out what do you do best?

[00:16:23] Natalie: We've got to be able to identify this is what I'm good at. This is what can help me move the needle forward in my life. And then you put the attention there. And you let everybody else help support your vision. Okay.

[00:16:37] Natalie: Yeah. So let me ask you now you like marketing, even it's your work. It's, it's not your, your passion, but I think you're okay with marketing.

[00:16:47] Lola: Yeah. So I guess the way I would describe it is it conceptually. I love marketing. I love advertising. I love curating in general. I would consider myself like a, just a creative and artist. And I love this creative direction space. And so when I think about marketing, the parts market, I love, I love the strategy.

[00:17:32] Lola: And that's not what I want my everyday to be. But I do love in general, um, just some of those bigger pieces that are, that kind of allow me to balance the creativity with the logic. And so it's one of those things where it's, I'm passionate about it, but I think that my passion really comes from being able to operate in a place that aligns with my personal values.

[00:18:16] Lola: And she ended up taking another job that was a smaller company and it was about investing. And she says, you know, Lola, I'm actually like really happy here and I'm glad that I took this job instead because she was like, you know, I was so hell bent on working for this big corporation that I didn't even think if it aligned with my personal value.

[00:19:20] Lola: But it's not just about the task and the work and the career, but where I'm doing it and who I'm doing it for and how I'm using my skills. Right. And I think that is a big part of differentiating between like the passion part of it and the job part of it.

[00:19:39] Natalie: man, say that all again, that right there, I could just end this right now.

[00:20:03] Natalie: Most people are at Coca Cola collecting Coca Cola money. Okay, and miserable, and absolutely miserable. And I want more people to feel confident to make choices that go against what society would say. Go against what your family and friends might think is best, and be true to your own self. It's one of my most favorite quotes is, To thine own self be true.

[00:20:47] Natalie: If you're going to be in a place that's just going to burn you out, And you never get to do the parts of the job that you really enjoy, you never get to be intellectually stimulated and challenged and have that dopamine effect that comes because you're doing something that truly excites you, then what's the point?

[00:21:46] Natalie: And it seems like you've really found that kind of harmony between the job and the passion. So tell me now, how were you able to step from the job into your passion now, which is in the fashion industry? I'd love to hear more about that.

[00:22:04] Lola: I'm honestly big picture. I am grateful that I have to spend these six years in marketing and learning everything that I have. I'm so grateful for the experience that I got working for StyleRips because now I am a startup. And I have learned a lot about what to do and also what not to do. Even now when I'm a manager in my regular marketing role and in my role as the leader of my company, I learned about management from good managers and bad managers from my experience.

[00:22:52] Lola: I mean, because when you're a business owner and when you're chasing your passion in general, when you're an artist. Things go wrong and just in life things go wrong. But that was a skill that I learned from my marketing work, consumer behavior, psychology, how to interact with people, all these things.

[00:23:38] Lola: I worked in B2B. Those are the same relationships that I am working with every day, direct to consumer, talking to my potential customers, B2B. When I'm talking with retailers or wholesalers or industry people, all of those skills. I can now say, wow, what did I learn from when I used to work at this other place that I can apply now?

[00:24:14] Lola: Whether you were a cashier or you worked at Domino's Pizza, you learned something from how to answer a phone, how to talk to people that you can use and where you plan on going next. It can even be a source of inspiration for you and you may not even know it. I mean, it's just one of those things where you have to just, choose.

[00:24:48] Natalie: I couldn't have said it better. And there is no lie about the startup world. Okay. The startup world is, is changing every minute.

[00:25:19] Natalie: You will be able to handle whatever comes your way Whether it's good, whether it's bad, you just know how to not get knocked down. And so when you talk about transferable skills, because, you know, there's such a push for entrepreneurship. Oh, start your own business and Oh, be your own boss. And that's all great and dandy.

[00:25:53] Natalie: You might be, you know, in a place of bitterness, like, ah, I don't like my boss. Oh, I don't want to be at this company. Ah, yada, yada, yada. You're really getting paid to learn. See it as that. What are you learning? What experiences can you gather while you're there that they can pay you for? Okay. And you use it to your advantage.

[00:26:30] Natalie: Be grateful, A, for the paycheck, but not just the paycheck. Paycheck's good, but not just the paycheck. Grateful for the interactions, for the lessons, for the opportunities, for the space to make mistakes, for the space to grow and learn and try new things. And even as you said, you learn from people so that when you become your own leader for your own company, you get ideas.

[00:27:06] Natalie: Like if I go to this job and then I go to another job, it has to be the exact same job. And those skills are lateral and across, but that's not what it means. Transferable skills really means the skills you're taking. You can find a way to benefit to make them work wherever it is that you're going. Right.

[00:27:43] Natalie: So what does success look like for you along this journey?

[00:28:08] Lola: Like, look at what we did. Like, it'll be accomplished, but a feeling of completion and not just the task or the project itself, but like a self fulfillment. Like I feel complete. I pulled something off that gave me a sense of fulfillment. I feel happy. I feel proud of myself. I feel like resilient or confident.

[00:28:56] Lola: Look at where I came from, what I accomplished. And how it made me feel and I think that that for me Is what I would define as success these days. It's just feeling complete and what I do because there's also, you know, there's a difference in completing a task and Just feeling complete if that makes sense, you know, I complete tasks every day I check things off my checklist every day, but there are some days where at the end of the day I feel complete.

[00:29:38] Natalie: I love that answer. Love it. And it makes me think of something. One of my podcast episodes, can't remember which one, one of my off the cuffs, it was talking about how you feel about yourself.

[00:29:49] You know, I'm

[00:30:11] Natalie: and so I like that about myself and when I think of the qualities that I have, I'm like, yeah, I, okay, Natalie, like I'm, I'm proud of myself. I feel a sense of completion in that I'm not scattered in how I show up. I'm not scattered in my authenticity. You won't see me acting one way here and one way there.

[00:30:56] Natalie: But if we strip all of that away, you're left with yourself. So can you look in the mirror and just say, you know what, I love you, and I'm proud of you. What that relationship looks like. Is what I'm hearing you say is really about success.

[00:31:14] Lola: When I'm like, I've had a wonderful day. I've had a great day. You went out a bad day. I sit down, I have dessert every night. Whether it's just wine or like a piece of dark chocolate because it's my way of just saying you were successful today.

[00:31:59] Lola: But I'm treating myself. I'm going to have a dessert and I'm going to sit there and I'm going to reaffirm to myself, like, Today was successful no matter what the heck the day looks like. I'm gonna have my dessert.

[00:32:24] Natalie: I want to know You know, some people feel torn between choosing their career job and pursuing a passion and, you know, people might be listening to you and they're like, Oh, well, Lola's got it all figured out and she's never had a struggle. There was never a hard moment. One way or the other what advice can you give to somebody who might feel torn?

[00:32:58] Lola: Yeah, absolutely. I try to be as open and candid about my experience as possible.

[00:33:23] Lola: My clothes arrived late, damaged in the wrong size. I mean, the day before the show, we were up all night having to rip clothes apart and really so then I remember the first night of our show, the hair and makeup artists didn't show up. So the girls, we were doing each other's makeup. My husband was styling hair.

[00:34:14] Lola: I'm honestly, I'm a self funded business. 100 percent have no investors. It's all me, me and my little credit card debt. And it's scary. It's risky. And, you know, of course, I'm sure people hear all the time. Oh, like businesses, you don't make any money for the first three years. Absolutely true. I'm on year two.

[00:35:05] Lola: And I think that when I made the decision to become an entrepreneur, to start my own business. And one of the most difficult industries ever on top of that, you know, it was just coming from this place of knowing. So I think also when people are, you know, you're feeling torn and you're like, well, I don't know if I should just follow this linear path and select a career for the money or whatever, whatever, you know.

[00:35:58] Lola: But I'm also putting in my work and putting my head down and doing the things that I need to do. To make it happen. And so I know that my day job isn't my forever place I know that this I'm not going to die a Marketing manager, right? I'm not even gonna die a fashion designer or a business owner you know, I know that I'm just called to do so much more and That what I'm doing in my career is gonna help me get there even though it might not directly correlate for some people because you You know, for me, marketing into fashion.

[00:36:54] Lola: If that's your passion is to open a restaurant one day. I think it's just not limiting yourself, not feeling like you have to pick. one or the other and just allowing yourself to be just allowing yourself to say, listen, this is my career right now. It's okay that I don't like it. It's okay that I feel like I'm called to do more.

[00:37:45] Lola: It's just taking one small step towards what you're passionate about. And eventually, if you keep giving 10 percent every day and 10 percent every day, it adds up 10 percent over time. Eventually you get to. 100. You know, like you get to where you want to be. So I think it's just reminding yourself that you don't have to feel stuck in where you are now.

[00:38:30] Natalie: I couldn't have said that, Annie. I love how you said that. I, I'm ending there because I don't even want to mess it up. What you said was perfect. Perfect. I couldn't agree more. Duality. We have to consider duality. It's not just A or B. It can be AB. Okay, it can be BA. Okay, it can be A B. There are so many ways to configure things, but for some reason we are so focused on the black and the white.

[00:39:15] Lola: Oh, it is the art of uncertainty by Dennis Merritt Jones. It is about just embracing things, but you don't have all the answers.

[00:39:29] Natalie: Oh, perfect segue. Okay. We're going to look it up. Okay. What's your favorite way to fill your cup? Ooh,

[00:39:55] Lola: passion, and purpose.

[00:40:06] Lola: I am allergic to pineapple. I am also gluten and dairy free.

[00:40:34] Lola: Yes, so you can find me on social media. Instagram, TikTok. It's Lola J. Dominguez, my full name. And you can find my brand Domevis online as well at D O M I V I S dot com. And that's also how you can find us on social media.

[00:41:04] Natalie: It's been an absolute pleasure Thank you for so much for coming on the show and to the listeners continue to serve yourself your loved ones and your communities from a full cup